Electronic golf game



June 1951 E. w. LEAVER ET AL ELECTRONIC GOLF GAME 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 14, 1948 QOFOE 1 vvN Y S W ,5 MR N Q. p Nv 0 r "ha 7 mL a Wmlk mm Cmw Y a June 1951 E. w. LEAVER ET AL ELECTRONIC GOLF GAME Filed May 14, 1948 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Iran INVENTORS ER/c W. LEHVEP BY WILL/QM H.MART/N 197' TOR/V5 Y Patented June 19, 1951 ELECTRONIC GOLF GAME Eric W. Leaver, Toronto, Ontario, and William H. Martin, Guelph, Ontario, Canada Application May 14, 1948, Serial No. 27,034

8 Claims.

Our invention relates to an electronic golf game and more particularly to a game played with an actual golf ball adapted to be struck by a club, simulating golf and adapted to be employed for healthful exercise and for the amusement of golfers in urban areas removed from actual golf courses.

It has been the practice in gymnasiums and the like to use .indoor driving ranges in which an actual golf ball is adapted to be driven against a canvas backstop. While this practice provides exercise for golfers during inclement weather and in urban areas where golf courses are not easily accessible it is uninteresting, unstimulating and no means are provided for determning whether or not the stroke was actually a good one or the ball well hit.

One object of this invention is to provide a simulated golf game in which a ball is actually driven by a player against a canvas screen with which is associated means automatically to move a golf ball through a distance consonant with the velocity of the ball. The impact of the ball is converted into sound waves which are picked up by a microphone and amplified. The output of the amplifier is fed to a delay circuit which produces an output voltage proportional to the input magnitude. The output of the delay circuit, through the time which is a function of the velocity of the ball driven by the player, is fed to a motor control circuit which controls a motor adapted to drive a model ball along a pictorial representation of a golf hole. The arrangement is such that the ball moves a distance proportional to the distance the original driven ball would have gone if it had not been stopped by the canvas. An indicator is associated with the assembly automatically to show the number of strokes.

Another object of this invention is to provide an electronic golf game, simple and easy to construct and having many of the interesting features of actual golf.

Another object of this invention is to provide an electronic golf game in which the user may practice his strokes and improve them indoors in a limited space.

Another object of this invention is to provide an electronic golf game closely imitating actual golf which may be installed in gymnasiums, on shipboard, in amusement places, in clubhouses and the like.

In the accompanying drawings which form a part of the instant specification and which are to be read in conjunction therewith and in which like reference numerals are used to indicate like parts in the various views:

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view showing one embodiment of the electronic golf game of the n ion;

Fi ure 2 is a schematic view Showing the electrical circuits involved.

More particularly, referring now to Figure 1 of the drawings, the player tees a ball 4 upon a tee B as is customary in the game. A canvas screen 8 is mounted an appropriate distance, say twelve to twenty feet, from the tee and is carried by a frame H]. Associated With the frame, there is provided a soundecollectingloaflle IZ leading to a microphone It. The microphone output is led by cable It to an amplifier H3. The amplifier output is fed by cable 20 to a delay circuit 22 which is designed to produce a voltage having a duration proportional to the magnitude of the input voltage. This voltage is led by cable 24 to a motor control circuit 26, the output of which governs a motor 28 through cable 30 to move a model golf ball 32 along the panorama of a golf course 34 exhibited to View throu h a window in a case 36. Model ball 32 moves toward the green 38 of the pictorial representation of the golf course a distance proportional to the distance the actual golf ball ll would have gone had it not been stopped by the canvas screen 8. A part of the output of the amplifier on each stroke is led through cable ill to operate a switching mechanism adapted successively to energize one of a plurality of small incandescent lamps 62 which act as stroke counters. The case is positioned convenient to the players view so that he can tell at a glance the position of the ball to enable him to gauge the club he is to use for the next stroke and also to inform him of the number of strokes employed in the playing of the hole. 1 After one hole is played, the panorama 34 is changed to the next hole by means of the handle 44. Either nine or eighteen holes or any other appropriate number of holes of varying length may be depicted upon the canvas belt housed within the case 36.

Referring now to Figure 2, the microphone indicated generally by the reference numeral Hl comprises a cone 59 attached to an armature 52. The armature may be a permanent magnet and is lodged in a coil 55. The movement of the armature under the influence of the sound waves generated by the golf ball striking screen 8 generates an electromotive force in the coil which is impressed upon the grid 56 of a thermionic tube 58 through a low pass filter. The capacitor 6.0 is

tuned to eliminate undesirable high frequency components. This prevents the system from responding to false sounds due to external noise as, for example, by the golfer banging his club on the floor or the like.

The amplifier I8 comprises two stages. The signal is amplified first in the thermionic tube 58. The output signal from the tube 58 is impressed upon the grid 60 of a second thermionic tube 62 through a capacitor 64 and is amplified in the second thermionic tube 62. The output of the second thermionic tube is impressed upon the grid 68 of a double triode 10 through capacitor 66. The cathode 12 of the double triode 10 is connected to one side of a capacitor 14 and to the plate 16 of a thermionic tube 18. The signal received by grid 68 produces a surge of current in the circuit from plate 80 to cathode 12 of the thermionic tube 16. This current charges capacitor 14.

It will be noted that the grid 82 which controls the flow of current from the plate 84 to the cathode 86 is connected by conductor 88 to the cathode 12 which is connected by conductor to the capacitor 14. The charge of the capacitor 14 is proportional to the magnitude of the input voltage impressed upon the grid 68 of the tube 10. As will be noted, the positive side of the capacitor 14 is impressed upon the grid 82 of the tube and upon the plate 16 of the tube 18.

The charge of the condenser 14 will fiow to ground 92 through the plate to cathode circuit of the tube 18 at a rate determined by the bias of grid 94. This bias is determined by the IR drop through resistor 96. As long as the charge persists in capacitor 14, current will flow in the circuit from plate 84 to cathode 86 of tube 10. The resistor 98 is connected as a cathode follower so that, as long as the current is flowing through the resistor 98, a positive potential is impressed upon the grid I00 of the thyratron I02 producing a current in the circuit of plate I04 of the tube I02. A winding I05 of a relay is placed in this plates circuit. When current fiows in the plate circuit of tube I 02, the armature I08 is attracted to ground contact point H0 and contact point I I2. The armature, it will be observed, will be held in contact-making position as long as current flows in the plate circuit of tube I02 and this will occur as long as the capacitor 14 retains its charge. The time interval therefore through which current fiows in the plate circuit of tube I02 will have a value proportional to the magnitude of the input voltage to the amplifier.

A source of alternating current potential of any convenient nature is impressed across terminals H4 and H6 and is led by conductors I I8 and I20 to an electrical timer of any appropriate known design (not shown) positioned in housing I22 which is normally located in the case 36. A coin slot I24 is adapted to receive a coin and to actuate any appropriate coin-controlled apparatus (not shown) and thus free lever I26. The actuation of lever I26 initiates the timer action and closes switch I28, thus placing the primary winding I 30 of a transformer, indicated generally by the reference numeral I32, across the potential terminals H4 and HE. A fuse I34 is provided to protect the circuits in event of an overload such as may be caused by a short circuit or the like. Thermionic tube I36 is connected as a full wave rectifier, the output of which passes through choke coil I38 to point I40 and provides the source of positive plate potential for all of the thermionic tubes except thyratron I02. Plate 51 of. therm onic tube 58 is connected to point I40 through conductors I42, I43, I44 and I45. Plate 6| of thermionic tube 62 is connected to point I40 through conductors I42, I43, I46 and I41. Plates and 04 are connected to point I40 by conductors I48, I49 and I50. The alternating potential source is impressed across the primary winding I52 of a transformer indicated generally by the reference numeral I54 when the switch I28 is closed, the primary winding I52 being connected in parallel with the primary winding I30 by conductors I55 and I58. The secondary winding I60 of the transformer I54 is placed in the platecathode circuit of the thyratron I02, furnishing the energy for its operation. A secondary winding I62 connected across the heater I64 of the rectifier I36 furnishes the potential to heat the cathode. A secondary winding I66 of the transformer I32 is connected across the heaters I68, I10, I12, I14 and I16 in parallel. The heater I68 heats the cathode 59 of the tube 58. The heater I10 heats the indirectly-heated cathode 63 of the tube 62. The heater I12 heats the indirectlyheated cathode 12 and the heater I14 heats the indirectly-heated cathode 36 of thermionic tube 10. The heater I10 heats the cathode I03 of the thyratron I02.

The motor 28 is provided with a field of unidirectional polarity comprising pole piece I80 and pole piece I82. A reversing switch indicated generally by the reference numeral I64 is adapted to reverse the direction of flow of the armature current through the motor 28. When the switch is thrown to the right, the potential from point I40, led through conductors I48 and I86, flows from contact point I88 to the brush I98, through the motor armature to the brush I 92, and thence to contact point I94 through the conductor I98, through armature I08 to ground 208. When the switch is thrown to the left. current will flow through conductor I96, through the contact point 202 to the brush I92, through the motor ar mature to the brush I90, and thence through contact point 204, through the conductor I96, through the relay armature I08 to the ground 200. By reversing the flow of the armature current and maintaining the field in a constant di rection, the direction of rotation of the armature of the motor 28 is reversed. The reversing switch is adapted to be manually actuated externally of the case The reversing switch is man ually connected to a switch 206 adapted to connect a battery 208 to one or the other of incandescent lamps 2I0 and 2I2. These lamps illuminate arrows on the casing to show the direction of travel of the model ball 32 by the motor 28.

The model ball 32 is secured to a reciprocal rack 2I4 adapted to be driven by a pinion 2H5 connected for rotary driving by motor 28 through a shaft 2| 6. A clutch 220 is connected in the shaft and set to slip when the rack reaches the limit of travel in either direction in the casing. A push button 222 is adapted to complete the circuit through the motor armature to ground 224 manually so that the motor may be reset manually by operating the reversing switch I84 and the push button 222 manually as will be described more fully hereinafter.

The operation of the armature I08 of the relay; it will be remembered, completes a circuit to ground by means of contact I I0 through the winding 226 of a solenoid, current flowing from the direct current source I40 through conductor I48, conductor I86, conductor 2 28, winding 226',

contact point Mil, armature H118, to ground 2150. A solenoid armature 230 is normally held: to the right as viewed in Figure 2 by a spring The armature is provided with a tooth 23 i engaging a ratchet wheel 236. The ratchet wheel is adapted to rotate a movable conducting arm 2% successively to contact a plurality of contact points Z i-Z. Each contact point is connected by a plu rality of of separate conductors 2 34 to respective incandescent lamps 2:36 so that the corre" sponding incandescent lamp will be placed across a battery 25!} for energization of its filament. lhe winding 22% is adapted to be energized manually by a push button 252 which completes the circuit to ground 254. Each time the relay armature ltii is moved under the influence of the magnetic field set up in the relay winding MG by the plate current flowing through the thyratron plate circuit, the winding 228 is energized, thus stepping the rotary arm 2% around one stop, lighting the incandescent lamps in succession. In this manner, we provide a stroke counter which automatically counts the number of times the hall strikes the canvas and indicates the number of strokes. In operation, handle M is cranked to show the view simulating the first hole of the game. If desired, the fairway of the hole may be marked at intervals of fifty yards in order to serve as an indication of ti e length of each successive stroke. A coin is deposited in the slot [2t and lever HE is operated. This starts the timer and closes the switch 128. The switch 584 is then thrown to illuminate either indicator 212 or 2H] in order to move the model ball from the position it occupies to the tee of the panoramic view. The push button is pressed to operate the motor to bring the model ball to the tee. If the indicator lamp 286 of the stroke counter is not at the tee, the push button. 252 is pressed. Each time the push button is pressed, the armature 2.3-!) will reciprocate once, thus stepping the rotary switch arm 245 around successively to illuminate the stroke counter lamps. A succession of operations of the push button 2132 will illuminate the lamp 2:35 indicating the tee. The switch I84 is then reversed to illuminate the indicator lamp Elli to show a direction of flight of the ball from tee to green. The parts are now in position for the player to play the first hole. indicator 2m indicates the flight toward the green; the stroke counter is likewise at the tee. The player places a ball t on the actual tee takes an appropriate club and drives the ball to the canvas screen 5. The velocity of the impact of the ball will produce sound waves which are proportional to the speed of travel of the ball. If the ball hits the center of the canvas squarely, the amplitude of the displacement, that is the loudness of the sound waves, will be greater than if the ball hits the screen near its edge. In this manner, the driving of the ball in a direction from the true direction of the hole or hooking or slicing the ball will automatically reduce the yardage registered. In other words, a distance of 200 yards will be registered only when the ball is driven at the proper speed and in the right direction so that it would have gone 200 yards if it had not been stopped by the canvas screen 8. The low pass filter ahead of the first amplifier tube 58 eliminates unwanted high frequency components. The signal produced by microphone armature 52, as amplified by the amplifier it, will have a voltage which is the func tion of the distance the ball would have traveled The ball is at the tee; the

6 on an actual fairway. This signal is" fed to the delay circuit 22 which produces an output voltage having a duration proportional to the magnitude of the input voltage. This output voltage, applied to grid lei}, operates the thyratrcn H in the plate circuit of which the winding I36 of the motor control relay is positioned. The relation between the duration of the output voltage of the relay circuit with respect to the magnitude of the input voltage is governed by the circuit values, including the value of the resistor 96. By adjusting the value of the resistance of this resistor, the system can be calibrated so that the yardage of simulated motion of the model ball 32 will closely conform to the actual yardage which the ball would have traveled on the fairway of a golf course. The energization of the thyratron actuates the relay of which armature Hill is a part, thus completing the armature circuit of the motor to drive the rack 2i i and its model golf ball along the simulated fair way toward the hole. The movement of the armature Hi3 also completes the circuit through the winding 226 of the counter solenoid, thus illuminating the incandescent lamp to indicate one stroke. The player then gauges the distance to the hole, takes the proper club for this dis tance and drives a second ball against the canvas screen 3. If the ball overruns the green, the reversing switch 58 is operated and the third stroke returns the ball toward the green. Each stroke is automatically counted and, when the model ball 32 is in line with the hole, the player notes the number of strokes shown by the stroke counter upon his score card, resets the ball and the stroke counter as indicated above by means of push buttons 222 and 252, cranks the handle it to bring the second hole into view. This hole is likewise played.

It will be readily understood that many variations may he introduced to render the game more interesting. An actual putting green of synthetic material may be placed adjacent the tee so that, after the ball lands on the area of the green of the panorama, putting may take place in fact instead of being simulated. Then too hazards may be placed on the fairway such simulated bunkers or bodies of water requiring the taking of a penalty stroke registered by manually operating push button 222.

When the electric timer in the housing 22 opens the switch l28, it is necessary to insert an additional coin. This automatically penalizes an unskilled player since he is required to use more strokes and hence take longer to complete the course. The timing may be adjusted so that nine holes may be played by the average golfer.

It will be seen that we have accomplished the objects of our invention.

We have provided a simulated golf game in which a ball is driven by a player against a canvas screen with which there is associated automatic means for moving a golf ball through a distance proportional to the velocity with which the ball strikes the screen. The impact of the ball is converted into sound waves which are picked up by a microphone and amplifier. The output of the amplifier is fed to a delay circuit which produces an output voltage proportional in duration to the magnitude of the input volt age so that the output of the delay circuit represents a time which is a function of the velocity with which the ball is driven by the player against the canvas screen. The delay circuit controls a motor circuit which drives a model golf ball along a pictorial representation of a golf hole a distance proportional to the distance the original golf ball would have gone had it not been stopped by the canvas. We have provided an electronic golf game, simple and inexpensive to construct, which has many of the interesting features of actual golf, thus enabling a player not only to practice his strokes indoors in a limited space but also providing a game closely simulating actual golf. Our electronic golf game may be installed in gymnasiums, in club rooms, in amusement places, on shipboard and in other places of limited space.

It will be understood that certain features and subcombinations are of utility and may be employed without reference to other features and subcombinations. This is contemplated by and is within the scope of our claims. It is further obvious that various changes may be made in details within the scope of our claims without departing from the spirit of our invention. It is therefore to be understood that our invention is not to be limited to the specific details shown and described.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim is- 1. An electronic golf game including in combination a diaphragm adapted when struck by a golf ball to generate sound waves, means for mounting said diaphragm in the path of the flight of a golf ball adapted to be driven from a tee, a microphone positioned adjacent said diaphragm, an amplifier, means for impressing the output signal of the microphone as the input signal to the amplifier, a delay circuit adapted to generate an output voltage having a duration proportional to the magnitude of the input voltage, means for impressing the output signal from the amplifier upon the delay circuit as the input signal thereto, a representation of a hole of a golf course, a model of a golf ball associated with said representation, an electric motor, means driven by the electric motor for moving the model golf ball, control means for said motor and means for governing said control means as a function of the output signal of said delay circuit, the construction being such that the model golf ball will move along the representation of a golf hole a distance proportional to the distance the driven golf ball would have gone if it had not been stopped by the diaphragm.

2. An electronic golf game as in claim 1 including in combination a filter network interposed between the microphone and the amplifier, tuned to eliminate undesirable high frequency components.

3. An electronic golf game as in claim 1 including in combination a stroke counter adapted to indicate the number of times a golf ball in flight is stopped by the diaphragm and means responsive to the output signal of the delay circuit for operating the stroke counter.

4. An electronic golf game as in claim 1 in which said delay circuit comprises a twin triode and a triode, a capacitor in the cathode to ground circuit of one of the cathodes of said twin triode, the positive terminal of said capacitor being connected to the anode of the triode and to the grid of the second half of said twin triode, means for impressing the output signal of said amplifier upon the grid of the first half of said twin triode.

5. An electronic golf game as in claim 1 in which said control means comprises a relay and said means for governing said control means comprises a thyratron and means for impressing the output of said delay circuit upon the grid of said thyratron.

6. An electronic golf game as in claim 1 including means for reversing the direction of rotation of said electric motor.

7. An electronic golf game as in claim 1 including in combination a stroke counter for counting the number of times a golf ball is stopped by the diaphragm, means responsive to the output signal of the delay circuit for operating the stroke counter, and manually-operated means for resetting said stroke counter.

8. An electronic golf game as in claim 1 including manually-operable means for energizing said electric motor for re-setting the model golf ball to its initial position.

ERIC W. LEAVER. WILLIAM H. MARTIN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,102,166 Roberts Dec. '14, 1937 2,331,235 Schaefer Oct. 5, 1943 2,331,237 Schaefer Oct. 5, 1943 

